A look back at the Pac-May negociations

aztec1 · Aug 21, 2010

Nobody gives a fuuuuuuuck!!!!! Chris Tucker form....

Concrete · Aug 21, 2010

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=5393522

Updated: July 19, 2010, 10:41 PM ET
Mayweather adviser: No talks took place

Leonard Ellerbe, one of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s closest advisers, denied Monday that negotiations for a super fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao had ever taken place.

That is contrary to what Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, has been saying for the past three weeks, and he's sticking by his story.
Arum said June 30 that he had concluded talks and was waiting for a decision from the Mayweather camp on whether he wanted to fight this year. Then, Arum gave Mayweather until 3 a.m. ET Saturday to accept the terms of an agreement, or he would move on and look to make a deal for Pacquiao to either fight Antonio Margarito or have a rematch with Miguel Cotto on Nov. 13.

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Here are the facts ... the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place, nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying.
-- Leonard Ellerbe, an adviser to Floyd Mayweather Jr. (pictured)
There was even a clock on Top Rank's website counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the deadline, a deadline Arum said was the window in which he would exclusively negotiate the Mayweather fight.
Arum set a teleconference with boxing reporters at the deadline's expiration. On the teleconference, Arum said he had worked out the agreement with Al Haymon, Mayweather's top adviser, using Ross Greenburg, the president of HBO Sports, as a go-between without ever speaking directly to Haymon.

Now, Ellerbe denies any of that ever happened.
"Here are the facts," Ellerbe said in Monday's statement. "Al Haymon, [Golden Boy Promotions CEO] Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis, and the truth is no negotiations have ever taken place, nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying."

Ellerbe was clearly taking a shot at Arum, who is famous for playing fast and loose with the truth after having uttered the famous quote years ago, "Yesterday I was lying; today I am telling the truth."
When asked for his response to Ellerbe's surprising statement, Greenburg said in an e-mail to ESPN.com, "As always we have no comment."
Arum sounded utterly perplexed when reached for comment about the statement.

"This is like absurd unreality," Arum said when reached at his Los Angeles vacation home. "I'm not going to be party to this [expletive]. When I heard about [the statement] I thought it was a joke. Ross said he was talking to Haymon. He certainly wasn't making it up. And Haymon was relaying conversations to Ross allegedly that Floyd had with him. At least that is what Ross says."

Throughout May and June, when the negotiations were supposedly taking place, Arum refused to speak about them. He would cite a "gag order," which he said everyone involved had agreed to. Schaefer did the same thing and would sometimes say "no comment" when called before even being asked a question because the "gag order" had become such a joke in boxing circles.

Oscar De La Hoya, the founder and president of Golden Boy Promotions, acknowledged negotiations during an early June appearance on a talk show on Spanish-language network Univision. During his appearance, in which he spoke Spanish, De La Hoya said the deal for the fight was very close.
When the camps negotiated the bout in December and January in anticipation of it happening in March, both sides spoke freely to the media, and their comments, they said, contributed to the fight blowing up over an inability to finalize the drug testing protocol.
This time, both sides said, they would keep things private.

If there is no negotiation, who imposed the gag order? Why they're doing this is absurd. What is motivating them to put something like this out? I'm not going to speculate but what are they doing? Schaefer said there was a gag order. Who could there be a gag order from if there were no negotiations? From the sky?
-- Top Rank's Bob Arum on Mayweather camp statement
"If there is no negotiation, who imposed the gag order," Arum said. "Why they're doing this is absurd. What is motivating them to put something like this out? I'm not going to speculate, but what are they doing? Schaefer said there was a gag order. Who could there be a gag order from if there were no negotiations? From the sky?

"What they said was absurd, but why did they say this? They could say a lot of other things. My feeling is that this is rapidly becoming one of the most bizarre things ever."

On Sunday, Mayweather, who was in Miami as a coach at a charity basketball game hosted by Dwyane Wade and Alonzo Mourning, told The Associated Press regarding the Pacquiao fight, "I'm not interested in rushing to do anything. I'm not really thinking about boxing right now. I'm just relaxing. I fought about 60 days ago, so I'm just enjoying myself, enjoying life, enjoying my family and enjoying my vacation."

With Mayweather, who beat Shane Mosley on May 1, clearly not interested in fighting again this year, Arum said he will try to close a fight with Margarito or Cotto in the next 10 days or so.

But there remains a hearty appetite from the public for Pacquiao-Mayweather, a fight between the sport's two best fighters. It's a fight that many believe will shatter all boxing revenue records.

Top Rank streamed Saturday morning's teleconference live on its website, and spokesman Lee Samuels said more than 30,000 tuned in despite the timing. He added that Top Rank's website spiked to 50,000 hits on Saturday. Both, he said, are records for the site.

So Ellerbe's denial of the talks and Arum's insistence that they took place add another chapter to the saga of the biggest fight in the sport, one that seems a long way from taking place.

"The kid [Mayweather] said he doesn't want to fight. OK, good," Arum said. "But this makes everybody look crazy."

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Concrete · Aug 21, 2010

http://www.ringtv.com/blog/2145/hauser_the_mayweatherpacquiao_negotiations/Hauser: The Mayweather-Pacquiao Negotiations

Posted Jul. 22, 2010 at 11:50am

Too often, boxing gives the impression that the inmates are running the asylum. That phenomenon has been on display recently in the conflicting, and sometimes absurd, public pronouncements regarding the proposed Nov. 13 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

For several months, the public was told that negotiations were proceeding pursuant to a self-imposed gag order that the participants had put in place to avoid incendiary statements that might derail the fight.

On June 10, Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya (Mayweathers co-promoter as of late) broke the silence and told Univision that a deal for the bout was very close.

On June 30, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum (Pacquiaos promoter) told SI.com that, with HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg acting as an intermediary, he and Mayweather advisor Al Haymon had reached a tentative agreement for the fight. All that was necessary, Arum said, was for Mayweather to sign off on the deal points.

Mayweather was silent on the issue. Thus, Arum set a deadline of midnight on the night of Friday, July 16. If there was no response from Mayweather by then, rather than keep Pacquiao out of the ring indefinitely, Team Pacquiao would seek another opponent.

Midnight came and went. At 12:01AM, Arum announced on a teleconference call that Mayweather had failed to respond positively or negatively to the terms that had been hammered out by Greenburg, Haymon and himself. As a result, the promoter said, he would explore other options for Pacquiao.

Then things took a turn evocative of Alices Adventures in Wonderland. On July 19, Team Mayweather issued a statement from Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe denying that negotiations for Mayweather-Pacquiao had ever taken place.

Here are the facts, Ellerbes statement read. Al Haymon, [Golden Boy CEO] Richard Schaefer and myself speak to each other on a regular basis. The truth is, no negotiations have ever taken place nor was there ever a deal agreed upon by Team Mayweather or Floyd Mayweather to fight Manny Pacquiao on November 13. Either Ross Greenburg or Bob Arum is not telling the truth, but history tells us who is lying.

Of course, theres a third possibility: that Leonard Ellerbe is not telling the truth.

So what really happened?

Greenburg was extremely eager to make Mayweather-Pacquiao a reality. Multiple sources say that, this spring, he told Arum, I want to put this fight together. I can do it with Haymon.

Later, at a June 3 tribute to Arum at the Friars Club in New York, Ross assured Bob, I can get this fight.

I never talked to Haymon, Arum told RingTV.com. It was all done through Ross. Ross represented to me that he was talking to the Mayweather side through Haymon, and it was left to Haymon to deal with the rest of the Mayweather people. Based on what Ross told me, I asumed that we had a meeting of the minds on money and drug-testing. There was no done deal for a site, but the most likely site was Las Vegas. The MGM Grand wanted the fight. Steve Wynn was interested. Jerry Jones might have given us a blank check and told us to fill in the amount if we went to Dallas. But all the talk about finalizing the venue was premature.

Haymon never represented to Ross that Floyd had signed off on the deal, Arum continued. According to Ross, Haymon always said that he had to get final approval from Mayweather. But if Ross is to be believed and I believe him here Haymon said that he, meaning Haymon, was satisfied with the terms.

A source at HBO with knowledge of the situation said that there was a time during negotiations when Haymon tried to use the promise of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to secure TV dates for several of his other fighters. Greenburg, according to the source, appropriately refused.

Its unclear what role, if any, Golden Boy was to play in the promotion. That was up to the Mayweather people, Arum said. Depending on the day, I got mixed signals through Ross. From time to time, Ross would tell me that Haymon was checking certain things with Schaefer. Other times, I got the impression that maybe Golden Boy was out.

As the world knows, July 16 passed with no deal for Mayweather-Pacquiao. Then Ellerbe issued his statement denying the existence of negotiations.

Ellerbes claim is undermined by the reasonable assumption he read reports about the negotiations in the media yet never publicly suggested to anyone that the reports were wrong. At the very least, one would have expected him to pick up the phone, call Greenburg and ask, What are these reports all about?

One would also think that, if there were no negotiations, Greenburg would have called Arum to inquire about the reports.

Arum put it more bluntly, saying, Is Ellerbe crazy? If there were no negotiations, why was everyone talking about a gag order?

Al Haymon has refused to comment publicly on the controversy. So has Greenburg. Where Haymon is concerned, thats par for the course. Regarding Greenburg, the view here is that Ross owes Arum the courtesy of a public statement that negotiations did, in fact, occur (the assumption here being that they did).

As for the future? Arum noted in his midnight statement, People have asked me, Does this mean the Mayweather fight is dead? Even though Mayweather has not responded by the deadline, the deal is dead when we reach a deal with an opponent for Mannys fight in November. Then we are contractually bound to do that fight. In the interim, if Floyd suddenly emerged and said he wanted to do the fight, there would be nothing opposed to getting together and doing the fight. That is our position, and I hope it is as clear as I can make it.

In that vein, one source says that Haymon met with Greenburg this past Tuesday, and told him, Dont worry. I have everything under control.

Maybe he does. Maybe he doesnt.

The fight will happen if Mayweather wants it. If hes afraid of Pacquiao, it wont.
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Concrete · Aug 21, 2010

http://www.examiner.com/boxing-in-l...-be-embarrassed-for-associating-with-don-king

Richard Schaefer says Floyd Mayweather should be embarrassed for associating with Don King

August 9th, 2010 1:18 pm

Boxing is an ugly sport for a plethora of reasons and there has recently been a war of words that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has found himself in against with Don King and Top Ranks Bob Arum. The root of the heated argument is none other than Floyd Mayweather Jr., who happens to be one of the hottest commodities in the sport despite still not having any fights lined up in the near horizon.

Despite being a promotional free agent, Mayweather has worked with Schaefer and Golden Boy on a fight by fight basis for his previous four contests and he was rumored to be eyeing a November 13th fight with Manny Pacquiao. The negotiations would fall apart in mid-July, Mayweather went silent, and Pacquiao set his sights on rugged Mexican Antonio Margarito instead, leaving Schaefer at a loss as to the future of his part-time client.

Towards the end of the month Mayweather would throw out yet another curveball as he would be spotted in South Florida getting cozy with outspoken promoter Don King. The two men were captured on film flashing money, enjoying lavish lobster dinners, and smiling from ear to ear. You couldnt help but wonder where their rekindled union would lead and soon after King would have some harsh words for the way that Mayweather was treated in recent times by Golden Boy.

They dont speak ghetto-ese like Floyd Mayweather does, do you understand? King stated. I mean, thats like hieroglyphics to them. So they may talk to the man like theyre talking down to the man. Talking around the man. Or looking at the man in a condescending manner, you know what I mean? They look at him like hes an indentured servant when in actuality hes the hottest thing on the planet.

King went on to say that Floyd was being treated like a cow or horse by the company and that he would be able to generate the star nearly $100 million as opposed to the $40 million that Golden Boy could get from a fight featuring Mayweather. Taking obvious offense to Kings bold proclamations, Schaefer fired back with venom of his own.

Its really just an insult to the Mayweather brand, Schaefer said in a Boxing Scene article by Lem Satterfield. I really think so. To have this guy, this D-Rex talking about it like that- its just embarrassing to everybody. I dont know what that relationship is. I cant speak about somebody elses relationship. But to read about this D-Rex talking that this ghetto-ese language is how he can relate to Floyd-its just bad. I just felt that it was very insulting.

Continuing his tirade, Schaefer pointed out that King, who produced this weekends Gateway to Greatness event headlined by Jr. Welterweight champion defending his titles against Andriy Kotelnik, should be more concerned about the fighters he already has under contract.

I think that Don King would be better served to take good care of the fighters that he actually has, such as Devon Alexander, Schaefer claimed. If I were Devon and I had to read all week long about how Don King bought Floyd Mayweather a $500 lobster at his house, I would be insulted and upset because this was supposed to be Devon Alexanders week.

Yesterday our colleague-in-the-know Michael Marley broke the news that a hot rumor has been going around that King has apparently secured a four-fight, $100 million deal with Mayweather that could likely see the Las Vegas-based fighter finish his career with the decorated promoter. Striking news indeed if it is true and hearing yet another King salvo towards Schaefer really puts into perspective just how close he has gotten to the 33-year old star in recent weeks.

You see, wherever Floyd is, thats where Im at. And whatever that is, Floyd is beneath Schaefer because hes humiliated and embarrassed by it. Its like he doesnt want to communicate with Floyd on Floyds level because Floyd is an animal or whatever it is, and he doesnt want to be associated with that.

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Concrete · Aug 21, 2010

Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather: Roger Mayweather Says Fight Will Happen

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...re-youll-see-floyd-fight-before-the-years-out

Is Floyd's uncle saying the Manny Pacquiao-Antonio Margarito fight isn't a done deal?
In a news article by John Martinez of Boxscore News, Floyd's uncle, Roger Mayweather said,"I'm sure you'll see Floyd fight before the year's out."
Roger Mayweather serves as Floyd's trainer and certainly knows what is happening in his camp with regards to world's most desired boxing fight.
On the other hand Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum and Canadian adviser Michael Koncz said the Pacquiao-Margarito fight is definitely taking place on November 13.
Arum is supposed to announce the venue after Margarito gets back his license which was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission for the illegal inserts found in his gloves before taking on Shane Mosley at the Staples Center in California last year.
Margarito is scheduled to appear at the commission hearing today. Announcement on the outcome of the hearing is expected shortly.
In a phone conversation with Martinez, Roger Mayweather said:
"This fight has to happen; we want this fight," exclaimed Roger Mayweather. "The fight for my nephew is Manny. This is the fight that makes the most sense when talking about money making, but also, this fight has to happen cause it's important to the fans. The people want to see this fight and they should get what they want."

He continued, "I'm hearing people say my nephew's (multi-world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.) scared of Manny Pacquiao. Floyd ain't scared of Manny. Lil' Floyd ain't scared of sh*t, why should he be?" Mayweather continued, "let me ask this question, who's been knocked out twice?"
Roger said the real reason why the fight has not happened is because Pacquiao does not want to take a random blood and urine tests all the way up to the fight.
He said,"The only reason this fight hasn't happened is because Manny won't agree to random blood tests throughout training camp," Roger said. "This motherf**ker says he agreed to tests, but he really didn't," Mayweather continues, "He wants to know when these tests are happening and he wants them to end at a certain time. How the f*ck is that random drug testing?"

He then asks, "If you got nothing to hide, then why be so concerned about when you gotta take a drug test? How you gonna leave over 100 million dollars on the table cause you don't want to take random drug tests leading up to the fight?"

"I know why? Cause you got something to hide," said Roger.
The trash-talking Floyd's uncle was tagged as the culprit in the second failed Pacquiao-Mayweather match because of his court case involving a lady boxer who sued him for injuries. Floyd's camp says the case will affect Roger's concentration as trainer of Floyd.
In his article, Martinez added, "Aside from revealing his belief that Floyd will fight in the near future, he finished with a message to Manny Pacquiao."

"Come on mother f**cker, meet us."

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hallelujahholla · Aug 21, 2010

Floyd doesn't want the fight...its that simple...when one guy doesn't want to fight the other, the fight can't be made.

Concrete · Aug 21, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100819/ap_on_sp_bo_ne/box_pacquiao_margarito

Margarito denied license to fight in California

Former welterweight champion
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[COLOR=#366388 ! important]Margarito[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] was denied a license to fight in California on Wednesday, leaving a significant hurdle in the way of a proposed bout against Manny Pacquiao.

Margarito was suspended for at least a year after an illegal, plaster-like substance was found in his hand wraps before a January 2009 bout against Shane Mosley at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
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[COLOR=#366388 ! important]hands[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] were rewrapped and he lost the WBA title fight.

The state athletic commission voted 5-1 to deny
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[/COLOR][/COLOR] a license after a 5 1/2-hour hearing Wednesday in Los Angeles, where Margarito testified that he knew nothing about the illegal wraps and blamed his trainer Javier Capetillo, whom he fired. Capetillo was also suspended.

"There is a concept in business that you can delegate authority but not responsibility," Commissioner Steve Alexander said near the end of the hearing. "I hope that the message that goes out here is that the commission operates fairly, openly and transparently.

"Public protection is at the heart and soul of this commission," Alexander said. "Period."

Promotional company Top Rank has been hoping to pair Margarito against Pacquiao on Nov. 13, either in Las Vegas or at Cowboys Stadium near Dallas. But his application to fight in Nevada last month was tabled pending a decision in California, and it's unclear whether the commission in Texas is willing to grant Margarito a license.

Decisions handed down by one state athletic commission are often upheld by others, although they are under no obligation to do so. The ruling also does not apply outside the U.S.

Top Rank chief
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[COLOR=#366388 ! important]Arum[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] was not available to comment on the decision. A spokesman for the company referred questions to attorney Daniel Petrocelli, who is representing Margarito.

"You're not dealing with someone who is a so-called repeat offender," Petrocelli told The Associated Press. "You're dealing with someone who was found guilty for the first time.

"Prior to the events of last year, Mr. Margarito had fought 42 fights, including 15 title bouts, and prior to last year he had a spotless disciplinary record, he was never accused of cheating," Petrocelli added. "He had an exemplary reputation in the boxing world."

Petrocelli said Top Rank and Margarito plan to discuss his options on Thursday.

Margarito could have fought in Mexico, where he now lives, during the yearlong period that his licensed was revoked. Instead, he chose to honor the California commission's decision and stay out of the ring in hopes that it would curry favor when he applied for a license.

He finally returned on May 8, about 16 months after his fight against Mosley, and moved up to junior middleweight to win a decision over
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[COLOR=#366388 ! important]Garcia[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

"I am here to make an apology not only to the commission, but to the entire world for not knowing what was in those wrappings," Margarito said during the hearing Wednesday, speaking in Spanish through a translator. "I think that anything that is placed in the wrap that isn't legal is cheating, and is an unfair advantage."

State attorney Karen Chappelle disputed that Margarito wasn't aware of the illegal wraps.

"A boxer like Mr. Margarito makes his living with his fists," Chappelle said. "He knows what is in the wrappings that go on his fists.

"Think about what would have happened if those illegal handwraps had not been discovered before he stepped into the ring with Shane Mosley that night," Chappelle said. "Mosley could have been presented with a danger of severe magnitude."

Margarito said that he wouldn't have knowingly jeopardized his ability to earn a living by using illegal hand wraps, and pointed out that he is responsible for his wife, her family and numerous other relatives who rely on his income from fighting.

"All I'm saying is I did not know what was in these wraps. I'm being completely honest with all of you and with all the boxing people," Margarito said. "That's why I broke my relationship with
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[/COLOR][/COLOR], which was hard, but it's what had to be done."
It apparently wasn't enough for the commission.

"The best-case scenario is that Mr. Margarito didn't know that this was being done to his gloves, but should have known," Commissioner Eugene Hernandez said. "The worst-case scenario is he didn't know and he didn't want to know."

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Concrete · Aug 21, 2010

The end, for now.

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A look back at the Pac-May negociations

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A look back at the Pac-May negociations

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